Nathan S. Caswell  IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 (ncaswellus.ibm.com). Dr. Caswell is a research staff member in the business informatics department with 30 years of experience studying complex dynamical systems. He joined the Watson Research Center in 1981 after earning a Ph.D. degree in physics at the University of Chicago and holding an IBM Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. His initial research at IBM focused on material systems, including multi-trap kinetics in long-persistence CRT (cathode-ray tube) phosphors, the lifetime of photolithographic CRT cathode materials, and the effects of continuous trap distributions on TFT (thin-film transistor) response time. His recent work has involved developing representational approaches to business engineering that enable the analysis of the full complexity and dynamic evolution of systems on a large economic scale. He has led projects with both internal and external customers in the health care, retail, food service, manufacturing, and business transformation areas, demonstrating their practical application. He holds several patents and has authored a variety of journal articles.

Christos Nikolaou  University of Crete, Knossou Ave., 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece, P.O. Box 2208 (nikolaucsd.uoc.gr). Dr. Nikolau is a professor in the department of computer science and founding member of the Transformation Services laboratory at the University of Crete. He earned a diploma in mechanical and electrical engineering in 1979 from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics (in 1979 and 1982) from Harvard University. His current research interests are business transformation models and strategies, service engineering, and the transformation of services and business processes to increase productivity and competitiveness. From 1981–1992 he was a research staff member and then a research staff manager at the IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY. He has been a chair of the Greek National Education Council, the Greek Ministry of Education, the Strategy Committee on Computers and Telecommunications for Education, and the Executive Committee of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). He received the IBM Invention Achievement Award in 1992 and the IBM Outstanding Innovation Award for scientific contributions to goal-oriented workload management in 1993. He was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Palmes Academiques by the Republique Francaise in 2006. Part of the work described in this paper was performed while he was an academic visitor at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

Jakka Sairamesh  IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Dr., Hawthorne, NY 10532 (rameshus.ibm.com). Dr. Sairamesh (Ramesh) is a manager and program leader at the Thomas J. Watson Research center in Hawthorne. He obtained his M.S and M.Phil. degrees from Columbia University in 1992, and a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1996. Since then he has been working at IBM Research on e-business platforms and business solutions for the automotive, electronics, and retail industries. He has also done research and development in service science, auctions and trading systems, mobile e-business, information economies, and decentralized computing systems. He has published numerous papers on early-warning systems, dealer value networks, e-marketplaces, market-based control, and information communities. He was the program leader, expert, and key architect from the research division on IBM business solutions such as dealer collaboration and early-warning systems for quality/warranty and supply-chain quality (between 2001 and 2007). Prior to this, he was one of the key architects of the WebSphere Marketplace Edition (trading system) and WebSphere Business Edition. He currently leads projects in the areas of intelligent business solutions, value and supply chain networks, early-warning systems, and service science. He has won several research division awards for his contributions to dealer collaboration, early-warning systems, e-marketplaces, and service science.

Marina Bitsaki  University of Crete, Department of Applied Mathematics, Knossou Ave., 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece, P.O. Box 2208 (marinacsd.uoc.gr). Dr. Bitsaki is a visiting professor in the department of applied mathematics at the University of Crete. She received a diploma in mathematics in 1996 from the National and Capodistrian University of Athens, Greece, an M.Sc. degree in statistics and operational research in 1998 from the University of Essex, Great Britain, and a Ph.D. degree in computer science in 2004 from the University of Crete. From 1998–2001, she was a member of the Telecommunications and Networks Group at the Institute of Computer Science, Foundation of Research and Technology (ICS/FORTH) in Greece. From 2001–2004 she was a member of the Network Economics and Services Laboratory at the department of informatics in Athens University of Economics and Business. She is currently a member of the Transformation Services Laboratory at University of Crete. Her current research interests include the development of pricing schemes applied to network services, auction theory, queuing theory applied to computer networks, business transformation models, and the information economy.

Georgios D. Koutras  University of Crete, Computer Science Department, Knossou Ave., 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece, P.O. Box 2208 (koutrascsd.uoc.gr). Mr. Koutras is an M.Sc. degree student in the computer science department of the University of Crete, focusing on the research areas of e-commerce and information systems. He received a B.Sc. degree in computer science from the University of Crete in 2005. His research interests are e‐commerce, service science, information systems, the information economy, e-learning, public key infrastructure systems, and wireless networks. As an undergraduate, he participated as software engineer and information security consultant in several projects of the research committee of the University of Crete. He has worked as system developer for projects of the Information Systems Laboratory Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas (FORTH). He has also worked as a software engineer for the Hellenic Republic electronic passports project. He is currently a research assistant at the Transformation Services Laboratory of the University of Crete, and participates as a research consultant in projects of the Digital Library of the University of Crete.

Giorgos Iacovidis  University of Crete, Computer Science Department, Knossou Ave., 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece, P.O. Box 2208 (iacovidcsd.uoc.gr). Mr. Iacovidis is a graduate student in the department of computer science at the University of Crete, focusing on the areas of e-commerce technologies and computer networks and digital communications. He is also a research assistant in the Transformation Services Laboratory at the University of Crete. His recent research interests include e-business technologies, business transformation, service science, the digital economy, value networks, e-learning, and Internet systems. He also participates in research and development projects in collaboration with the Centre of Communications and Networking and the Digital Library at the University of Crete. He received a degree in computer science from University of Crete in 2005.